▪ I. tapper1
(ˈtæpə(r))
Forms: 1 tæppere, 2 -are, 6– tapper, Sc. tappar, topper.
[OE. tæppere, f. tæppa, tap n.1, tæppian, tap v.1: see -er1.]
† 1. a. One who taps casks or draws liquor; a tavern-keeper; = tapster 2. Obs.
| a 1000 Ags. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 202/14 Caupus, i. tabernarius qui uinum uendit. tæppere. a 1050 Liber Scintill., etc. (1889) 226 Na byþ ᵹerihtwisud tæppere [L. caupo] fram synnum welera. c 1537 Thersites in Four O. Pl. (1848) 82 The tapper of Tauystocke & the tapsters potte. 1618 D. Belchier Hans Beer-pot B j b, Ioaske Flutterkin, a Tapper. |
† b. A retailer; cf. tap v.1 4 b. Sc. Obs.
| 1478–9 Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1869) I. 37 The provest and counsale of the towne ordanis the meilmen topperis fremen of the towne and [to] top his meill daylie. 1580 Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876) I. 82 That na topparis of small salt..by ony salt in greit..quhill ix houris of the daye. 1605 in Macgregor Hist. Glasgow xviii. (1887) 157 Tappers of woollen and linen cloth. |
2. a. One who or that which taps, in various senses; e.g. one who taps trees for the sap or juice; a machine for milking cows.
| 1884 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iii. 309/1 The tapper then goes round provided with the bark scraper. 1884 J. Scott Barn Implements xvii. 157 Tube-milkers, or tappers; Sucking-machines; and Mechanical hand-milkers, or squeezers and strippers. 1908 Westm. Gaz 2 Mar. 5/2 The ruthless destruction of date palms by ‘tappers’ is said to be most evident in Madras. |
b. One who ‘touches’ another for money; a beggar. Cf. tap v.1 3. slang.
| 1930 G. Smithson Raffles in Real Life xiv. 189 He was a hanger-on, a common cadger, a ‘tapper’. 1939 J. Worby Spiv's Progress iv. 32, I didn't have time to light a cigarette before I was accosted by a tapper. 1962 John o' London's 25 Jan. 82/2 One who lives by cadging or begging is a bummer, knocker or tapper. |
c. One who taps (tap v.1 2 c) telegraph or telephone wires; a phone-tapper, a wire-tapper.
| 1973 P. Tamony Americanisms (typescript) No. 33. 7 Thirty three states legislated total wiretap bans.., while six created partial bans which allowed police to tap.., but forbidding private tappers under any conditions. 1976 Time 27 Dec. 42/2 Halperin..was furious at learning that the FBI had tapped his telephone... Last week Morton Halperin won a resounding victory that could cost his tappers, starting with President Nixon, nearly $1 million in damages. 1980 E. Behr Getting Even xv. 170 He delivered an oblique message in Chinese... The tappers might not even tell the difference. |
3. One who works a screw-cutting tap for threading holes or orifices: cf. tap v.1 6.
| 1909 in Cent. Dict. Suppl. |
▪ II. tapper2
(ˈtæpə(r))
[f. tap v.2 + -er1.]
1. One who taps or lightly strikes: e.g. one who taps at a door, etc.; one who taps the wheels of railway carriages, to test their soundness; a shoemaker who rivets on soles and heels; a dialect name of the lesser spotted woodpecker.
| 1810 Splendid Follies III. 89 If the young gentleman did not immediately return to town, and satisfy their urgent demands, a tapper would..make his appearance at Mistley. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xxxii, A low tap was heard at the room door. Mr. Bob Sawyer..bade the tapper come in. 1883 Macm. Mag. Feb. 269 The honest tapper of every wheel [of a railway train]. 1885 Swainson Provinc. Names Birds 99 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus minor). Also called..Wood tapper... Tapperer,..or Tapper. 1903 Daily Chron. 11 Sept. 8/4 Boot Trade, repairs.—Smart tapper to finish on machines. |
2. That which taps or lightly strikes, as a hammer for striking a bell; spec. a key in an electric telegraph which is depressed (with a tapping sound) to complete the circuit, a telegraph key; in wireless telegraphy, a device for restoring the filings to their original condition; also tapper-back.
| 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 43 There are two forms of the single needle instrument in general use, viz. the drop-handle and the pedal or tapper form. Ibid. 47 The sending portion of the ‘pedal’ or ‘tapper’ form of single needle. 1898 Edin. Rev. Oct. 306 The restoration to the coherer of its defective efficacy is brought about by the automatic action of a ‘tapper’. 1903 Sci. Amer. 26 Dec. 483/2 In 1894 he [Sir O. Lodge] exhibited at Oxford his first ‘tapper-back’, or automatic system of decohering the iron filings after each impulse. |
▪ III. tapper, tappes
obs. ff. taper, tapis.